Shoemaking



Oct. 27,1925 8,489

F. N. LA CHAPELLE SHOEMAKING Filed April 16, 1921 I I" 40 l l 5 i 12 J i ---g 18x1}: 1/ i i l Fig.3 Fig.2

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Patented Oct. 27, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED N. LA GHAPELLE, F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHO'E IMACHINER-Y CORPORATION, 01? PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A, CORPORATION OF NEW J ERSE'SZ'.

Application filed April 16, 1921.

Z 0 all whom it may OOTLGGWL.

Be it known that T, Faun N. LA CHAPELLE, a citizen of the United States, residing in Beverly, n the county of Essex and State of liilassachusetts, have invented certain improvements in Shoemaking, of which the following description, in connection witlrthe accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to shoe making, and is illustrated in connection with the protection of the upper materials of shoes against soiling during the various steps of their manufacture.

Many shoes are made with cloth or colored tops, which are very easily soiled by handling, and it is the custom to protept the tops of such shoes during the process of manufacture by placing protective covers about them. These covers are usually lasted in with the upper materials, and accompany the shoes until they are bottomed and ready for the final inspection and packing. At this point the cover is torn into two pieces, down the front and back of the shoe, and removed by running a knife about the inside of the cover against the welt.

Such covers have heretofore been destroyed after being used once, and when made of canvas for protecting high grade shoes, their cost may run up to sixteen cents a. pair. iioreover, if made of either canvas or paper, when they are cut away they leave a white line about the shoe just above the welt, which must be blacked out with great care to avoid soiling the vamp.

Nith these considerations in view, an object of this invention is to improve the protection of shoes against soiling, by lessening the cost and by obviating the white line left by cutting away the cover. The cost is lessened by making it practicable to use the same cover for two or more shoes, as hereinafter explained, and the white line is prevented by burning the cover away instead of cutting it. The edge is not only charred by the burning, so as to he inconspicuous, but the fire eats back into the crease between the upper and the sole, like a wick or fuse burning, out of sight, without continuing to burn long enough to injure the leather. The burning is done with a novel electricallyheated tool which is guided by the welt of sHoEMAKiNG.

Serial No. 461,807.

the shoe-engaging and non-heatconducting guard or guide on the tool.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figs. 1 and 2 are side elevations, and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic cross-section of one form of cover;

Figs. 4 and 5 are side elevations of an alternative cover;

Figs. 6 and 7 are side elevations of a second alternative form; and

Figs. 8 and 9 areviews of the novel heated severing tool.

The cover 10, shown in- Figs. 1,2 and 3, is sewed at 12 about its edge, and parallel chain-stitch seams 14 form tucks 16 in the material of which it is composed. A seam 18 limits the-extent to which a shoe may be inserted into the cover. The cover as shown in Fig. 1 is placed about a shoe, and lasted over the shoe bottom in the usual way. lVhen the shoe is finished, itis severed from the lasted-over portion, preferably as described below, and is then in the form shown in Fig. If a second shoe were then placed Cil therein, it wouldoccupy the position shown by the broken line S, with no surplus material to be lasted over the shoe bottom. However, by pulling out chain stitch seam 14, a tuck 16 is let out to provide the necessary material, and the cover may be reused. The illustrated cover, with two tucks, may be used three times, cutting the cost per pair to one-third of the present cost.

In the modification shown in Figs. 4 and 5, in lieu of tucks parallel chain-stitch seams 24 are provided across the cover 20. hen a second shoe is placed in the cover, as shown in Fig. 5, a seam 24 is pulled out, and the shoe may be pushed enough further into the cover to provide a margin for lasting over.

In Figs. 6 and 7 is shown a modification according to which the cover is first used on a large shoe S 6), and then on a smaller one S (Fig. 7) which can be pushed far enough into the cover to provide a margin for lasting.

I prefer to obviate the conspicuous white line produced by cutting away the cover by char-ring or burning it away with the tool shown in Figs. 8 and 9. This tool comprises a handle 40, in which is a. recess 42 containing an electric heating unit 44 which maintains a severing or cutting element 46 at a red heat. A guard or guide 48 of non-heatcondi icting material of any suitable kind, protects the welt VJ," and guides the sever ing element 4:6 as it burns the cover C from the shoe S. Even it the cover C is of such iaterial that the flame cannot eat back into the crease between the sole and the vamp, the charred edge is relatively inconspicuous.

Having described my invention, what I claim new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. That method of making shoes which comprises lasting over the shoe bottom with the upper materials, a protective cover having surplus material therein, finishing the shoe, severing the protective cover approxin'iately at the sole-attaching seam, placing the same cover about the upper of a second shoe of the same size, and utilizing the surplus material to extend the severed edge downwardly to last it over the bottom of the second shoe 2. That method of reusing a protective shoe cover which has an integral reserve supply of surplus material initially held out of enveloping relation with the shoe and which has been severed after being used in making one shoe, which comprises releasing the surplus material and placing a second shoe within the cover above the severed edge, and lasting the severed edge over the bottom of the second shoe.

That method or" making shoes which comprises lasting a protective cover over the shoe bottom with the upper materials,

-iinishing the shoe, and applying a heated tool tc the exterior of the cover along a line close to the sole attaching seam in such a way as to sever the cover and char its edge.

4:. That method oi making shoes which comprises completely enveloping the upper materials of a shoe within a protective cover, lasting the cover over the shoe bottom with'the upper materials, finishing the shoe, and removing the cover from enveloping relation with the shoe upper by burning the coverapproximately along the line of the sole attaching seam.

5. A reusable protective shoe cover comprising a sheet :lormed to lit about a shoe, and a plurality ct parallel seams in said sheet so arranged that the removal of a seam after each use will add to the clteetive length of the cover an amount suflicient to compensate for what is removed in using the cover.

6. A reusable protective shoe cover comprising a tubular shoe-enveloping portion having a plurality of tucks arranged to be let out successively as the COVGI is cut away "from successive shoes as described.

7. That method of nmhing shoes which comprises lasting a protective cover over the shoe bottom with the upper materials, finishing the shoe, and burning away the portion or the cover which extends into the crease between the upper and shoe bottom to sever the cover without leaving a visible remnant attached to the shoe.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

FRED N. LA CHAPELLE. 

